Historical A ccoun t of Testaceological Writers. 1 55 
of these plates contain shells, and are not ill executed, but the 
descriptive part is slight and useless. 
JOHN HENRY LOCHNER, 
the author of a work entitled " Jlariora Musei Besleriani" unfor- 
tunately did notliA^e to enjoy the reputation which, as he was only 
twenty years of age at the time of completing such laborious de- 
scriptions, was so justly due to him. The care of publishing them 
devolved to his father Michael Frederick Lochner, who was di- 
rector of the Imperial Academy Nat. Cur., and by whom we are 
presented, in the preface, with an interesting account of the extra- 
ordinary youth so prematurely snatched from the world, as also 
of the two Beslers, whose collections were so much celebrated in 
their day. Twenty-four plates out of the forty are the same as ap- 
peared in Basil Besler's own work, and there are only three rela- 
tive to shells. Much of the description is extracted from other 
authors, and the knowledge displayed in it is chiefly of an anti- 
quarian and philological nature, there .being no attempt at 
system. 
VALENTINI, 
though his most voluminous work came forth as early as the year 
1704, we have named here, on account of his most valuable per- 
formance not appearing until sixteen years after the former; we 
allude to the " Amphithcatrum Zootomicum." It is true that a large 
part of the contents of this volume consists of extracts from 
preceding and contemporary writers, and many of the plates arc 
copied; but, considered with reference to shells, the Amphithe- 
atriim Zootomicum has much better claims to attention than the 
Museum Museorum. In the latter the figures of shells are wretchedly 
executed. In fact, this bulky work relates to materia medica as 
much as to natural history, and the second edition actually bears 
x 2 the 
